Sunday, December 30, 2012

An American Hero - Curtis "Bud" Diles - Halyard Mission veteran

By Francie WeakleyDecember 15, 2012Words in the Clouds

Curtis Diles (left), with a friend in
Italy, 1945, returned to safety

and survived the war after being
rescued

by the Mihailovich Serbs.

There are those people in life that are born unto
their destiny, that come into life to be something special.They choose not their path, nor do they
accept it willingly, it just is for them, despite their not even seeking
it.You cannot create these people; you
cannot groom them for their destiny is contained within every cell of their
being.They cannot be drawn into a comic
book or cast into a made for TV movie and yet they have little glory in their
lives, for they choose not to seek out the glory and the recognition for they
are not Super Heroes, they are true life heroes and what they accomplish in life
as they walk along their path they do quietly with dignity and
honor.

One such man has always been a hero to me, long
before I realized his contributions to this country during World War II.That man, amazingly good looking, with a
smile that lit up every room he walked into, and every heart he touched, is my
uncle, Curtis Diles; “Uncle Bud”, as I knew him growing up.As a child I admired him, his laugh and the
depth of love he showed his children and his family.My mother’s brother was the man that I wanted
as a father; he was a gentle giant in my mind.Always there to ask how things were, to inquire about how things were at
home.I still feel his hand on my
shoulder, that gentle reassuring little squeeze that let me know he was
there.But behind all of that there was
something more to this man, something that I would not discover until many years
later as I embarked on my journey to obtain a college
degree.

As
a History Minor I had a set course of studies, which included a semester or two
studying the events of World War II.It
was through these semesters, a trip to the library and a grab for books that
would support my thesis statement that I discovered something about my Uncle
Bud; something that would confirm that the man I saw as a hero when I was little
was in fact the truest form of the word.For this man, this unassuming, gentle soul was in fact a hero.He was the kind of hero that didn’t make
broad statements, proclaim his victories or fly over tall buildings in a single
leap, though he was a flyer of sorts it was a subtle flight and it was a
dramatic decent that led him to heroism.

You see, my Uncle Bud was a member of the U.S. Army
Air Corps after having been drafted in September 1943 at the age of eighteen, an
age that we would now consider to be just a baby.But in 1943 times were different, males
became “men” earlier in life and they went off to war, they defended this
country and their comrades.They were
fighters and they were patriots, but not all of them were heroes and though some
gave their lives to defend our country, earning the status of “hero” in the
process, others came home to teach us by example.My Uncle Bud was one of those, an example and
a boy that became a man, a hero and a father in very short order as a Nose
Gunner in a B-24 Liberator.

It
was on a mission out of his home base in Southern Italy to bomb German Oil
Fields, his 17 of 35 total missions, which his B-24 would take a
direct hit from the German Anti-Aircraft artillery, forcing its crew to
parachute to safety.The safety of terra
firma, not the safety of families or even other U. S. troops, for they were
escaping a plane that was surely going to crash, all for the uncertainty of what
awaited them on the ground that they would eventually rest their weathered jump
boots.They had been warned about
hostile forces in the area, and more particularly those that may be
collaborating with the Germans.With a
plane that was doomed to crash there was little choice in the matter for the men
aboard that plane, face certain death or hope to elude those that wished to
place them into Prisoner of War Camps.

So
it was on September 8, 1943 my Uncle Bud was listed as “Missing In Action” by
the military. Days later my grandparents would receive that dreaded Western
Union telegram which read,

“The
Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your son Sergeant
Curtis Diles Jr., has been reported missing in action since Eight September over
Yugoslavia. If further details or other information are received you will be
promptly notified."

With this, my grandparents and his brothers and
sisters and other family members waited for news, news that he was alive and
safe. The oldest son, my grandfather’s namesake was missing and that was all
there was to know for times were different then, not everyone had phones, there
were not televisions in every home broadcasting the details of the war that
raged in Europe, news came slowly in those days the heartache felt by the
families as they waited was tantamount to having dental surgery without
Novocain. And while his family waited for some encouraging news, to hear their
son and brother was alive, this nineteen year-old kid had been rescued by an
unlikely group of people.

It
was the people that my Uncle Bud had been warned about, the “Serbs”, working
under Gen. Draza Mihailovich and The Resistance that would rescue him and keep
him from being captured by the Germans.For nearly ten days he would be hidden and protected by this group of
Resistance Fighters, they would feed him and provide him with a safe harbor to
rest his head and sleep.It would not be
long before the unlikely rescuers would contact the United States and arrange
for the extraction of the Americans, and that rescue will not include just my
Uncle Bud, but hundreds of other Americans that they had
saved.

The rescue would not be without risks however, for
it required the Airmen that had been shot down to take a dangerous trek through
a region that was rife with the enemy forces.There would be no trains, plans or cars to provide these men with
transportation to their rendezvous with extraction.They would walk, not a mile or two, but
nearly two-hundred treacherous miles, over mountains and through densely wooded
areas in frigid temperatures; often times hiding from the enemy and sleeping in
barn lofts along the way.The thought of
rescue and the hope of their being reunited with their families and other
service members far outweighing the ever daunting risk of capture that they
faced along the way. Food would be
scarce along the way and yet my Uncle Bud and the other Airmen maintained their
strength to complete the journey to their rendezvous
point.

It
would be the Office of Strategic Services, (OSS), having been established just
one year prior to my Uncle having been drafted and the precursor to the CIA;
that would ultimately lift my Uncle Bud and others to safety.Operation Halyard as it would be known, would
ultimately result in the rescue of many Airmen, but it would not have happened
had the Serbs and the OSS not worked together to build an airstrip for planes to
land on and carry the men back to their base in Italy.It would not have happened had the Resistance
Fighters not drawn German Troops away from the American’s hiding places with
their own gunfire.Many things came into
play to save my Uncle Bud, the help of the Resistance Forces, the charity of
Serbian Families and his own tenacity and determination.

Ultimately, Uncle Bud would not go home to The
States and spend time with his family like so many others that had been shot
down and rescued before and after him.He would receive The Purple Heart and he would continue to fly, as a nose
gunner, on many more missions.More
importantly he would continue to live out his destiny of being a true American
Hero and he would do it with grace, for this was not a choice he made, but what
he was born to do, who he was destined to be.

His status as a Hero in my eyes was not based upon
his military service, for that knowledge would come much later in my life.He became a Hero to me as I watched him,
sitting at my Grandmother’s kitchen table, drinking coffee and watching his wife
with eyes that only twinkled with the ultimate “true love”.He was a hero as I watched him with his
children, the gentle but loving hand he had with them, the love that he had for
his brothers and sisters.It may have
been that somewhere, deep inside of him, that there was a sense of gratitude
that he was alive; that he survived not only being shot out of the air, but
celebrated his rescue by a generous group of people; which in turn fostered his
desire to show compassion to others as it was shown to him.Regardless, he could jump tall buildings in a
single bound in my eyes; rescue a little girl that was frightened of her own
father and show her that there were good men in the
world.

He
became a Hero to many, including myself, after those days as a member of the
Army Air Corps.He was a Hero to my
Grandmother that often called him to fix something after my Grandfather had
passed away, to his wife, my Aunt Inez, which he gave a wonderful life and
together raised amazing children.To his
Grandchildren who carry his genetic traits, the embodiments of his life and
spirit and to my own Grandson that met him recently for the first time.For it is that sometimes, when you want it
the least, when you have no desire to seek it out, your soul and your spirit,
your manifest destiny finds you and it guides you to do and be something very
special.Uncle Bud is one of those
people an American Hero, a Legacy of Honor and Integrity to all those that know
him and he will always have that place, that little corner in my heart where I
can feel his hand on my shoulder, that gentle little squeeze that tells me he is
there and I am safe.

Watch "The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in WWII" Episodes 1-6

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the Second World War Documentary Series

THAT IS HEROISM...

"When the Will defies Fear,

When Duty throws the gauntlet down to Fate,

When Honor scorns to compromise with Death -

That is Heroism."

Robert Green Ingersoll

Thanks for visiting!

Aleksandra Rebic is an American of Serbian heritage born and raised in the Chicago area, the daughter of Serbian parents who emigrated to the United States from the former Yugoslavia and made America their home. She is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication Studies from the School of Speech.

Aleksandra has been an aspiring writer and student of history all of her life. While employed at a successful data processing company with both national and international clientele, she dedicates much of her free time to the freelance writing that she hopes will make a difference. Her focus and interests cover a wide range of topics, and her goal is to move and inspire people to see things from a different perspective. Aleksandra has been published in both Serbian and American newspapers and extensively online on the World Wide Web. She is co-author, with her father Rade Rebic, of the book “Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich i Drugi Svetski Rat: Istorija Jedne Velike Izdaje” (“Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich and the Second World War: History of a Great Betrayal”) in the Serbian language, and of a number of reports that she has issued through the years, including “Serbian 1,000 Points of Light,” “Stepinac,” “The Politics of Propaganda,” and “Jasenovac,” all in the English language.

Aleksandra has also established two websites online dedicated to educating both Serbs and non-Serbs about the true role that the Serbian people have played in world events throughout history. The two websites are:

With her father, she has organized and hosted several successful events including the 1993 "Mihailovich 100th Birthday Celebration" and the 1994 "Halyard Mission 50th Anniversary Commemoration," both held in Chicago.

Her current project in progress, together with her father, is "Heroes of Serbia," a special tribute book honoring the pivotal role the Serbs played in the Allied victory in World War One. “Heroes of Serbia” will be published in both the English and Serbian language in 2015, with the ultimate goal of having the tribute published in multiple languages.

Aleksandra remains a loyal American patriot who believes in the Serbian cause. Her many other interests and passions include photography, travel, nature and the outdoors, entertainment (movies, music, and television), reading, spending quality time with family and friends, planning and enjoying outings and new adventures, and sharing her Christian faith.

She currently resides and works in the Chicagoland area and is available for speaking engagements.